This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Toronto police have identified the deceased man alleged to be Bruce McArthur victim

“John Doe” has a name — five weeks after homicide investigators’ last-resort move to release a photograph of a dead, unidentified man believed to be a victim of alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur.

Toronto police announced Friday that their release last month of a grisly, albeit cleaned up image has culminated in the identification of the man, a development likely to lead to another charge against the accused killer already facing seven counts of first-degree murder.

Police have identified another man who is believed to be a victim of Bruce McArthur. In March, investigators had released a photo depicting a deceased man, seeking the public's help to establish the alleged victim's identity. (The Canadian Press)

The break came after 500 generated tips that turned into a long list of 70 possible identities, which became a shortlist of 22, which was finally winnowed down to one in the last 48 hours.

Police will release more details about the man and any additional charges against McArthur on Monday, after investigators notify the man’s family.

Putting a name to the deceased man had been both a source of stress and a priority for investigators. On Wednesday, at a news conference where investigators released an new illustration of the man to prompt more tips, Det.-Sgt. Hank Idsinga told reporters he could theoretically lay a charge without the identity, but “I’d like to put a name for him.”

Article Continued Below

In an interview Friday, the lead detective said he felt “incredibly proud” of the team of officers who’d gotten it.

“We are very happy and relieved that we’ve been able to identify him,” Idsinga said.

Since McArthur’s January arrest, the 66-year-old landscaper has been charged in the deaths of seven men with links to Toronto’s Gay Village. He is currently awaiting trial for first-degree murder in the deaths of: Andrew Kinsman, 49; Selim Esen, 44; Majeed Kayhan, 59; Soroush Mahmudi, 50; Dean Lisowick, 47; Skandaraj “Skanda” Navaratnam, 40, and Abdulbasir Faizi, 42.

At the time the photograph was released, police said little about its origins. Idsinga told reporters the image had been “cleaned up … to remove some artifacts,” and data from the photo shows it was altered through a photoshopping tool to erase and smudge parts of the image.

Toronto police have not revealed how they obtained the image, however sources have told the Star that investigators have gathered extensive evidence including digital images. Photos of dead men were found on McArthur’s computer, according to a police source.

Since the release of the image, a few emotional tips have come in, including instances of people believing the man in the photo was a relative. In one case, Idsinga met with a man who walked into Toronto police headquarters insisting the man in the photo was a loved one, and he was “bawling his eyes out.”

In that case, as in a few others, police were quickly able to determine that the man in the picture wasn’t their loved one. In a few other situations, police investigated tips and ruled out that they were the man in the photo but generated new missing persons cases.

Article Continued Below

Along the way, police built a log of possible identities, assigning each one to be investigated. Idsinga and fellow homicide detective David Dickinson would then evaluate each officer’s results.

“We would come back and say, ‘well, how do you know that, convince me that it’s not so-and-so,’” Idsinga said in an interview. “You’re always second-guessing yourself, and you know you can’t make that mistake because, heaven forbid, we identify this guy and it’s so-and-so, who was reported missing to the police in 2016 and look, we got a dozen tips saying that it was him.”

“Making an identification off just photograph is very tough, and excluding it off a photograph is very tough, too,” Idsinga said.

Police have launched an extensive and ongoing investigation to locate McArthur’s alleged victims — a search that thus far has uncovered seven sets of dismembered human remains. Forensic experts have since been working to identify the remains using fingerprint technology, dental records and DNA evidence.

As of Friday, six of those sets had been identified as belonging to Kinsman, Lisowick, Faizi, Esen, Navaratnam and Mahmudi; the remains of alleged victim Kayhan have not yet been identified. At least one more set of human remains is yet to be identified.

Earlier this week, Toronto police revealed that the sprawling investigation now includes 15 cold cases — unsolved murders with links to Toronto’s Gay Village as dated as 1975 and as recent as 1997. Idsinga also announced police would search as many as 75 properties linked to the alleged killer beginning in May.

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com